Man, 88, passes grade 8 piano with distinction, 67 years after taking grade 7
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Ray Eveleigh says playing helps keep his brain active and wife and daughter encouraged him to go for grade 8. By the age of 88, most of us imagine our exam days are long over. But for Ray Eveleigh, the challenge of taking grade 8 piano was too much to forgo and he passed with a distinction, 67 years after he taking grade 7.
Eveleigh, a retired reverend who lives in the East Yorkshire village of Kilham, near Bridlington, said he had been blown away by the interest after his story was featured on his local BBC radio station, television and in his local paper. He said: “I’m surprised that it caught attention with so much publicity, because there is so much news around with weather problems and the wars, of course, and then the political situation in America. And then I thought: ‘This is a bit silly, you know. There’s an old man in Kilham who’s passed grade 8.’”.
Eveleigh described the piano as a “personal friend”, one of the passions that helped keep his brain active. “You know, sometimes, obviously at my age, I get very tired. And sometimes I think: ‘This is no good. I don’t want to spend my life dozing in an armchair. Come on, Eveleigh, get up and play the piano.’.
“And that gets me out of it, you know, because what a privilege to be able to play music that was written by the great geniuses of a century or more ago. Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart. That’s amazing, really, to me.”. He said he was not a perfect piano student as a child and was always getting told off for not practising, but it was at Cardiff university when he met his wife, Brenda, a singer, that he decided to take the instrument more seriously.
